


Neal Caffrey, superhero ambassador

by mielipieli



Series: Neal Caffrey or Wait, you're a superhero? [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Titans (Comics), White Collar
Genre: Neal Caffrey is Dick Grayson, a lot more people are mentioned, quite a few separate stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mielipieli/pseuds/mielipieli
Summary: After his secret identity is revealed to the FBI - the Nightwing one, not the Dick Grayson one - Neal becomes the person to connect FBI and the superhero community.





	Neal Caffrey, superhero ambassador

“Caffrey”, Peter’s voice called from upstairs while Neal was working on some reports. He looked up to see Peter standing on the balcony waving him up. 

Neal grinned at getting a small break from these reports. 

“What is it, Peter?”, he asked when he stepped into the office atop the stairs.

“We have a few cases here that look like they might be Wonder Woman’s business. You mind having a look?”

“Not if it gets me out of those reports for a while.” Neal stepped around Peters desk. “What are they about?”

“A few ancient greek artifacts were stolen from different museums around the country. No signs of forced entry or manipulation of the security system.” Peter went quiet and waited for Neal to finish looking over the files. 

“Could be Circe”, Neal stated when he had skimmed the files. “Could be someone else. I’ll ask her to drop by later.”

Peter made a choking sound.

Neal grinned at him: “I love how you’re still surprised that I know superheroes. You do realise that’s my main function here now?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Go downstairs before I remember how much more paperwork I can give you.”

“Yes, sir”, Neal saluted with a smirk.

“Get out of my office!”, Peter called after him as he ran to the door.

\-------------

When Diana, Princess of Themyscira, Ambassador of the Amazons and freaking Wonder Woman walked through the door of the White Collar office, everyone froze. Neal just smiled and jumped up from his seat to hug her. 

“It’s good to see you, Neal. You should come visit me in the Embassy once in a while.”

“I will. It’s been a busy time.”

Diana released him from her embrace and held him at arm’s length to look him over. “Have you been eating enough?”

Neal just laughed. “Come on. I’ll show you what I asked you here for and then I can introduce you to a few people.”

\-------------

\-------------

“Mr. Caffrey?”

There was a stereotypical agent at his desk. God, he was even wearing those dark mirrored sunglasses.

“That would be me”, Neal said and looked for signs of aggression.

The agent seemed tense but it might have been his natural demeanor. No hands on any guns. Lips pressed tightly together. Keeping a respectful amount of distance. He didn’t seem to expect him to attack. Probably no danger then. 

“Your presence was requested at the Pentagon. There is a flight in an hour. If you would come with me”, the agent spoke.

“Could I please see the papers for that?”, Neal asked politely. 

The agent shoved them into his face and Neal took a look at them. Everything seemed alright but he’d ask Peter to check the system for verification. 

“Give me a few minutes to grab a few things and tell Agent Burke that he’ll have to make due without me.”

The agent nodded and his shoulders seemed to relax a little. 

Everything checked out and ten minutes later they were on their way to the airport. 

\-------------

It was a trap. Of course it was. Because when in his whole goddamn life had anything ever gone the way Dick wanted it to… Damn, he was slipping. It could be the drug in his drink but the fact that he hadn’t noticed that also said something. 

The flight had been really nice before he was handed a drugged drink. He’d listened to some music, sitting next to the wide-shouldered ‘agent’. Now Neal was trying to hang on to consciousness. And boy, it was difficult. How did this guy plan to get an unconscious person out of a plane? 

He must have a stewardess in his employ. Or as a partner. That was probably why Neal hadn’t noticed someone slipping something into his Sprite. Neal needed help. Turn off flight mode. There. Unlock the phone. Got it. Open the app. ‘Bat-Oracle’. A bat that served as an oracle. Babs’ idea of a joke. Tap the bat twice. Click yes. Now just leave the app open and the phone turns into Oracle’s little helper. 

Now sleep, Caffrey. Nothing you can do now, anyway. 

\----------

Neal woke up in the infirmary of the JSA Brownstone. He’d seen that ceiling enough times that he was pretty sure. His head was throbbing and he was a bit nauseous. His throat was dry and everything felt heavy. Neal gave a small noise to alert whoever was in the room to his change of his state. 

“Dick! How are you feeling?”, a voice said. Tim’s voice. His face was now leaning over Dick. 

Dick smiled: “Like I got kidnabbed an’ drugged?” Oh, god! He was slurring his words. 

There was a giggle from his side that Dick couldn’t immediately place. 

“Hoo’s…?” Dick tried to turn his head but gave up almost immediately. 

“Steph”, Tim said. 

“Hi, Dick”, came Steph’s cheerful voice. 

“Hi, Sdeph.” 

“Steph, can you get the Doc? He’ll probably want to check Dick over again now that he’s awake.”

There were footsteps and the sound of a door opening and closing. 

“Babs got your distress call and called Donna and Wally to Washington. They had the live information from your phone and took down the guys trying to smuggle you out”, Tim supplied.

“Guysssssss?”, Dick asked trying to convey that the plural was confusing. 

“Yes, they were pretty well organised. Had someone in the FBI who fooled the system. The baggage guys were from them, one of the stewardesses, the ‘agent’ who picked you up and one guy posing as a tourist. Far as we can tell, they were planning to sell you to the highest bidder for your Justice League connections.”

Dick rolled his eyes and was immediately overcome with a wave of dizziness and nausea.

“Peter?”, he asked once he’d gotten his stomach to calm down. 

“Knows what’s going on. Wally brought him all the evidence they collected and the men as well.”

Dick relaxed a bit. “Tanks.”

“I don’t see any.”

Dick groaned as Tim laughed. 

\----------------

\----------------

“Peter, if you don’t need me for the rest of the day, I’m going to Titans tower. Red asked me for help with a case.”

Diana and Peter looked up. “Red?”, Diana asked

“Red Robin”, Peter supplied. “It took me ten mentions to figure that one out.”

Neal laughs: “You could just have asked.”

“Takes the fun out of it.”

“So?”

“You wouldn’t have asked if you didn’t know we have nothing on our tables that can’t wait a day.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Peter nodded and looked down at the file again. Diana shot Neal a smile before also looking down. Neal took a step towards the table and grinned when he realised they were trying to solve a riddle he had mentioned the day before. It was ridiculously quiet at the moment and they were all just trying to escape the paperwork at some point. 

There wasn’t a case Tim needed help with. There was just a good old-fashioned spar. Definitely better than paperwork

\---------------

\---------------

“Neal? What’s going on?”, Neal heard Peter ask through the comm link.

He turned to make sure no one in the office could see his lips. “Cheshire and Deathstroke are here.”

There was quiet for a moment. Then Peter had worry in his voice: “Why didn’t we see them come in? Can they recognise you?”

“Civilian clothes. Yes, they can”, Neal replied absent-mindedly. His mind was busy trying to figure out how to get out of the building unharmed. 

“I want you out of there now”, Peter said firmly. 

“I’ll try. If something goes wrong, you should call the ambassador.”

It seemed to take Peter a while to process which ambassador he was talking about. Then there was a sharp intake of breath. There was murmuring on the other side of the line. A discussion of how exactly they should proceed. Neal started to walk towards the stairs as relaxed as possible. 

He was five meters away from Deathstroke and Cheshire. He was nauseous from fear. He pushed the video glasses up and hid his face for a brief moment. Maybe it would stop him from being recognized. He opened the door to the stairs and started sprinting down. The door fell closed behind him. He was at the end of the first flight of stairs and turned around. 

Slade was standing at the top and pointed a gun at Neal: “Hello, Richard.”

(“Richard?”, Jones asked Neal’s ear.)

“Slade”, he said and kept his arms hanging loosely by his sides. 

The door opened again. Cheshire. “Ooh, and here I thought today was going to be boring.”

Slade looked him over: “Those glasses have a camera, right?” Neal didn’t answer. “And that watch a microphone.” Neal stayed quiet. “Say hello to the FBI, Jade.”

“Hello, FBI”, Cheshire grinned. 

(“Dammit. I’m calling Wonder Woman”, Peter said. Good. Neal might get shot or poisoned in the next five minutes.)

“If you try something, I shoot you. If the FBI tries something, I let Cheshire poison you. They got that?”, Slade asked.

(Panicked murmuring came through his comm.)

“I think they got that”, Neal said with a dry tone. 

“You used to be more fun, kid.”

“I have to admit I’m not completely comfortable in this situation.”

(Jones snorted. Peter sighed: “Please don’t antagonise the supervillains.”)

Neal laughed. Slade raised an eyebrow: “Something funny?”

“I was just told not to antagonise the supervillains.”

Slade’s eye glinted with amusement: “Someone should have told you that when you were nine.”

(“NINE?!”)

The door in the lower story opened to reveal an intern with a bunch of files. Neal tried to tell her with a hand that she shouldn’t take the stairs. She ignored him, ran up the first flight of stairs, saw the gun, turned back and ran down. Neither Slade nor Cheshire made any move to stop her. Good.

“Now, Richard, what are we going to do with you?”, Slade asked calmly. 

Neal’s heartbeat sped up. This was probably not going to end well. 

“How about you just let me walk out of here?”, he asked with a grin.

Slade raised his eyebrows: “Now why would we do that?”

“Personally, I like the idea of killing you”, Jade said with a shrug. “But that’s just my opinion.”

(“I don’t like the direction this is going”, Peter said nervously. “When did Wonder Woman say someone would be here?” “She said it would take at least five more minutes”, Jones supplied. Neal could manage that.)

“What did I ever do to you, Jade?”, Neal asked mock-offended. 

“Let me think… There would be that time you threw me into prison, that other time you threw me into prison, that time you helped throw me into prison and that time you helped Roy take my daughter from me”, Jade actually seemed angry now. Damn, that hadn’t been a good idea.

(“Wow, Caffrey’s been busy”, Diana announced.)

“Well, you are a criminal.”

“Excuse me, I prefer assassin.”

“Oh, pardon me.”

The corner of Slade’s mouth twitched a bit: “I think we’ve wasted enough time. Come up here, Richard.”

A wave of panic rushed through Neal’s chest. He had to give whoever was coming more time. Nevertheless, if he didn’t do what they said, he’d probably have less time. So Neal went up the stairs until he stood in front of Deathstroke and Cheshire. Cheshire made a gesture for him to move further up the stairs. He did and heard the other two follow closely.

Neal waited for a sign to stop. There wasn’t any. They went up the stairs to the roof access. His palms were sweaty. His heart was beating quickly. He hoped to god that someone was going to be there soon.

(“Neal, the Teen Titans just arrived. We’re sending them to the roof now. Can you stall for half a minute?”, Peter asked and Neal barely stopped himself from reacting.)

“So, what’s happening now?”, Neal asked as he stopped in front of the door and turned around. 

Immediately Slade’s gun pointed at his stomach. Probably… yep, if he fired now, Neal would be paralysed. Nothing to worry about at all.

“I think, we’re kidnapping you”, Jade shrugged. 

“Well, that didn’t go that well for the last people to try. Don’t you want to try something new?”

“I think murder would be new and interesting. Can I, Slade, can I?”

“In his family murder doesn’t count as particularly new, don’t you think?”, Slade said in amusement.

Neal snorted to stop from sighing in relief.

“I guess we’re sticking to kidnapping then. Sorry, Richard, I tried.”

(“They’re ready, Neal. Try to jump to the side as soon as you step through the door. Kid Flash will carry you down”, Peter advised.)

“I guess we should go, then”, Neal said with a practiced smile. 

Slade raised an eyebrow: “Ah, Teen Titans in position, already? And it was just getting interesting.” Neal’s smile froze. (There was a lot of panic in his comm.) “Cheshire, make sure he doesn’t fly off.” 

Cheshire stepped closer and Neal felt the panic bubble up again. Damn it. No way he could beat either of them in such a tight space without any weapon or body armour. Trying to take on both of them would be suicide. Maybe if Deathstroke was busy fighting the Teen Titans, he could get away from Cheshire. Big maybe. Nothing he could do now, though. 

Cheshire laid an arm around Neal’s throat. Tight enough that he couldn’t breathe comfortably, not so tight that he’d have real trouble staying conscious. Her nails lay dangerously on his skin. One wrong move and he’d be dead. 

Deathstroke opened the door with a knife in his hand that hadn’t been there before. “Haven’t seen you kids in a while”, he smiled. “Lovely how you come to the defense of your elders.” He stepped through and motioned for Cheshire to follow. 

The Teen Titans - well, Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Superboy and Kid Flash - were keeping a distance so far. Wary. They had formed a circle around the door, far enough not to be hit by any surprise attacks. Smart tactic. Probably Tim’s. They were standing in front of a helicopter. Neal shot Tim a little smile to show him he was still alright. That, of course was the moment he wasn’t alright anymore. 

He’d missed the sign, he realized. He’d been focusing on making sure Tim wasn’t worried and had abandoned his training. Not that it would have helped but still. He’d missed the sign. He did feel the scratch over his throat though. 

It stung. A sharp sensation that made him hiss. Then his field of vision narrowed a bit. His ears were ringing. He saw that Slade was talking. Didn’t hear what he was saying. His knees weakened. Neal felt himself being lowered towards the rooftop. He was looking at the sky. Slowly, the ringing stopped.

“... antidote if you don’t follow us”, Slade said.

“Fine”, Tim’s voice answered angrily. 

Neal heard a helicopter and tried to push himself up. They were getting away. Why were they letting them get away?

“Stay still, Dick!”, Tim yelled over the noise. 

(“Neal, what’s happening? Are you okay?”, Peter asked in his ear.)

“I’m okay”, he said quickly. 

“You just got poisoned”, Tim stated dryly. 

(“Poisoned?!”, Peter asked as if he didn’t know Cheshire’s MO.)

“They’re getting away”, Neal urged weakly. 

Tim sighed: “We planted a tracker before you opened that door.”

Neal let himself fall back onto the rooftop: “Okay.”

“What are the symptoms?”, Tim asked him carefully.

“Narrowed vision, ringing ears, weakness, sweating, nausea, annoying little brothers”, Neal listed diligently. “Not sure that last one is connected.”

Tim’s mouth twitched in annoyance: “This is serious, D-- Neal!”

“Relax, Red. Give it five minutes and they’ll send you a message on where to find the antidote. Neither of them wants B to come hunting them down.”

A speedster - Bart - skidded to a halt somewhere left of them and whispered too loudly to Conner and Cassie: “How is he doing?”

“I’m fine”, Neal called. 

Bart’s face appeared above him: “Yeah, you don’t look fine. You’re just as white as Red Robin.”

Neal laughed at the offended look on Tim’s face. The laughter quickly dissolved into coughing. Tim sat down next to him and pulled out a tissue he then handed Neal. Neal coughed into it. 

“They don’t message us soon, we’ll get you to the Brownstone”, Tim said worried. 

Neal nodded and closed his eyes to breathe calmly. The roof access door burst open and Neal’s eyes shot open again. He jumped up and immediately collapsed against Tim who struggled to keep him upright.

“Neal!”, Peter called out worriedly. 

Neal decided Peter probably wouldn’t believe that he was fine and kept quiet instead. He heard Kon softly say to Tim “let me” and felt himself get lifted up carefully. Neal let his head loll against Kon’s chest. Easier than trying to keep it upright. 

“I’ll get him to…”, Kon was interrupted by a loud ping.

Neal turned his head and saw Tim fish out his phone and read a message. Then he sighed in annoyance and relief and started reading it to everyone: “Hello, little bird! Cheshire here. Have fun taking care of Nightwing. He’ll be alright in a few hours, no antidote needed.”

“Oh, good”, Neal mumbled. “I’m just going to sleep, then.”

He passed out before anyone could reply. 

\-----------

\-----------

“Superman?”, Jones asked

“Used to call him my uncle. Also, my brother is dating his kind-of-brother”, Neal replied and took a sip of his beer.

“Robotman?”

“One of my friends used to be in the Doom Patrol with him. Our teams helped each other out a few times.”

Diana laughed: “Give up, Jones. You’re not going to find one.”

“Red Star.”

Neal grinned: “Titans member. I know all of them.”

Jones sighed: “Damn, come on guys help me.”

Peter laughed: “Impulse. The new one.”

“My best friend’s daughter.”

“Metamorpho”, Diana threw in.

“Was on the Outsiders with him.”

Peter frowned: “How many teams were you on?”

“Teen Titans and Titans - all iterations that included some of the founding members - Outsiders, JLA, and if you’re being very technical the Secret Society of Supervillains. That last one was undercover, though.”

“Okay, you are officially crazy”, Jones said. 

“We need a plan of attack”, Peter decided. “No one who’s well known. No Titans. Hmm… let’s try magic. Got any?”

“Zatanna”, Diana said.

“My dad dated her.”

“Deadman.”

“Possessed me once.”

Jones sighed: “I don’t even know this many regular people.”

Neal laughed.

“Wait, a second!”, Peter said excitedly, “What about the newer ones. The ones who appeared after Neal became Neal!”

Silence.

“Anyone got any?”, Jones asked after half a minute.

“Lark?”, Diana asked carefully. 

“He actually decided on The Signal”, Neal said. “But I met him a few months ago. He’s my brother now.”

Three sets of eyes started staring at Neal. Jones swallowed: “How many siblings do you have?”

Neal looked thoughtful: “One, two, three… No, wait. One, two, three, four brothers and two or three sisters.”  
1  
“Why don’t you know how many sisters you have?”, Diana asked.

“I’m scared to ask whether B has adopted Batgirl yet.”

“...but you’re expecting him to do so in the future if he hasn’t already.”

Neal nodded sincerely: “Oh, definitely.”

\----------------

\----------------

The van was quiet as Peter, Diana, Jones and Neal watched the warehouse. They were the backup for an undercover agent but there was no real danger at the moment. 

“You know what, Neal? You make so much more sense to me now with the whole superhero thing”, Jones said without turning his eyes away from the screen. 

Neal chuckled: “How so?”

“It was really hard to get a read on you. Especially when you were running. Nothing you did made real sense because we were working with a false assumption.”

“For example”, Neal asked interested in whatever Jones had noticed.

It was Diana who answered: “You dislike violence but know how to fight.”

“Even when you were running it seemed like you had actual knowledge of how law enforcement works”, Peter added. 

Jones: “You always seem most comfortable when you’re in danger.”

Diana: “You never really seem to get along with criminals.”

Peter: “Sometimes - even back when you weren’t working for us - you use police jargon.”

Jones: “You usually robbed people who had gotten rich by being in the maffia or something like that.”

Diana: “You…”

“Okay, okay. I get it”, Neal grinned and raised his arms as if to surrender. “Also the police jargon might actually be because I used to be a cop.”

Jones stared at him: “You what?!”

“I was a cop for a while. Then other stuff got in the way and I quit”, Neal shrugged. 

“I swear you’re the only person who can give me a heart attack by talking”, Peter sighed. 

\--------------------

\--------------------

“Cass, what are you doing here?”, Neal called excitedly to the black-haired girl stepping out of the elevator.

The office was empty except for Peter’s team. Diana looked at the girl. She was relatively petite but Diana could see she was muscular. She was wearing a skirt that went to her knees. Tucked into it was a blouse that was at least four sizes too big. Actually, it might be a men’s shirt. The arms were rolled up to just below the elbows. Her shoes were simple black dress shoes. 

The girl’s black hair was of a medium length, ending just above her shoulders. She was definitely Asian and Diana felt a bit embarrassed that she couldn’t pinpoint a more precise place than ‘somewhere in East-Asia’. Her skin was a bit darker than Neal’s, who could pass as a tanned white guy but probably wasn’t. That was one part of his file they’d never managed to fill out. 

The girl grinned at her in a very welcoming way before she sat down on Neal’s desk. She made a few hand gestures that were probably sign language. 

Neal laughed: “That’s Diana. She usually doesn’t look that confused.”

Diana tried to put on a neutral mask. The girl just laughed.

“Diana, this is Cass. She’s my… a friend of my family”, Neal introduced and Diana wondered what he had been about to say. “So, Cass. Is that shirt Jason’s or Bruce’s?”

A grin stole its way on Cass’s face: “Jay. He is… happy when I…”, she said slowly, carefully. Then she got an annoyed look on her face and made a sign language gesture - at least Diana thought that was what it was. 

“Borrow”, Neal supplied.

“Borrow”, Cass tried carefully. “Borrow his… stuff.” She seemed proud of the last word. Or maybe of finishing the sentence. 

Diana had to admit that the way Neal listened and watched attentively as Cass spoke was very sweet. It had something… brotherly that he usually didn’t show. 

“Not that I’m not happy to see you… but what exactly are you doing here?”, he asked.

“I have bu-si-ness here. I stay with you”, Cass smiled. 

Neal ruffled her hair: “Doesn’t Bruce have like… 20 apartments here?”

“Yep”, Cass said happily.

Diana’s brain was struggling with a connection. There was something familiar about the girl, the name. The only famous Bruce she really knew of was Bruce Wayne and he had two daughters? One of them was pretty small - there was a media circus when she was born - and the other’s name was… Corinna? No, Cassandra. 

“Neal, why exactly do you know Cassandra Wayne?”, she asked.

Neal looked at her like ‘don’t be ridiculous’: “I used to be a vigilante in Gotham and rich kids get kidnapped.”

Cass laughed into her hand and Neal threw her a look that was somewhere between annoyed and fond.

“Who’s our visitor?”, Jones called.

When Diana looked up she saw both men standing at the railing, looking down at Cassandra freaking Wayne. 

“Peter, Jones, this is Cass. Cass, this is Peter and Jones”, Neal introduced. “Cass is a friend of mine.”

“He means to say: This is Cassandra Wayne who I somehow know and am close enough with that she invites herself to stay at my apartment”, Diana deadpanned. 

Cass laughed: “He saved my butt.”

Neal looked like he was about to start laughing hard enough that he might as well just cry. Somehow Diana didn't get the joke. Neither did Peter or Jones apparently.

“I take you home so you don’t o-ver-work yourself”, Cass said pulling the syllables of overwork apart like she had with business before. 

“That sounds great, Cass”, Neal said smiling, packed up his things and waved the three of them goodbye. 

After a long night of no sleep and researching the Wayne Family, Diana came to the conclusion that Neal Caffrey was Dick Grayson. Not that she’d ever do anything with the information. 

\-------------

\-------------

Yet another boring stakeout in the van. Diana was tired. Jones and Peter looked to be in a similar state. Neal on the other hand had been watching the screens attentively for over an hour now. He was also unusually quiet. His face was getting darker by the minute. 

“Goddamn it”, he mumbled, stood up and exited the van. 

The other three looked after him and jumped up to see what was going on.  
Neal looked at a rooftop - were there people up there? - his face full of anger: “Robin!”, he yelled in a voice that sounded creepily like Batman. 

All but one of the figures seemed to flinch and straighten their backs automatically. There was giggling - presumably from the person who didn’t flinch. Then six vigilantes dropped from the roof and landed in front of Neal. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”, Neal asked calmly.

One of the vigilantes, a guy with a red helmet - Red Hood, Diana realized, - crossed his arms: “You didn’t have to pull out the Batman voice.”

Neal mirrored the stance: “Yes, I did. You wanna know why? Because my idiotic siblings apparently...” Batgirl coughed into her hand. Neal rolled his eyes. “My idiotic siblings and their equally idiotic friend…”

“Thank you”, Batgirl grinned completely unimpressed by Neal’s anger.

“...apparently forgot that I don’t like it when they follow me around!”

The whole group of vigilantes seemed to tense. Then Red Robin relaxed: “Sorry? We actually just wanted to have a movie night but then your bald friend said you were on a stakeout, so we decided to come here. We didn’t actually mean to seem like we were surveilling you.”

Neal rubbed his face: “Next time maybe just call.”

“Will do”, Black Bat said and hugged Neal in a smooth motion. 

\-------------

\-------------

It was the middle of a briefing when Neal looked at his phone and got distracted. Not that it was a very important briefing. Insurance fraud. Still, Neal was never distracted in briefings. However, this time he looked down at his phone a few more times before quietly walking outside. Peter watched Diana’s eyes follow Neal curiously. 

Neal didn’t come back in during the remaining 10 minutes of the briefing. Instead he walked in as everyone else filtered out of the room. 

“Peter, I’m really sorry but I need to go do something. I’ll tell you more later.”

Peter nodded but Neal had already turned around to the door. Peter would really like to know what had him on edge like this. 

Two hours later Neal walked into the office with a woman with white skin and a superhero uniform. Peter watched as Neal pointed to his office and the woman smiled nervously. Neal said something that could be “Don’t worry”. Then they walked up the stairs and Neal opened the door. 

“Hey, Peter. This is Toni Monetti aka Argent. She used to be in the Titans. Toni, this is Agent Peter Burke.” Neal smiled proudly. Peter noted that he had put a hand on Argent’s shoulder during the introduction.

“Pleased to meet you”, Peter said and extended a hand.

Argent shook it: “You, too. Ni… ah… Neal said good things about you.” 

Neal seemed to be trying to hide a smile at Argent’s mistake: “Argent called me earlier because she has found information on a massive insurance fraud. She has files with enough information that we should be able to get warrants for the persons responsible in the next few days.” 

Argent seemed to glow with the praise and took a thick bunch of files out of the bag hanging over her shoulders and placed them on the desk. Peter started to look through them.

“You collected all of this on your own?”, he asked incredulously. The files were so thorough. It was incredible. “This is amazing work.”

Argent blushed, the red standing out on her white cheeks. 

“Do you have time to come in tomorrow?”

“Yes, why?”

“We need to work through the file and make sure everything is in order, so we can go to a judge. It would help if you could answer any questions that arise.”

Argent’s eyes widened a bit: “Of course, no problem.”

“Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow at nine?”

Argent nodded and they exchanged a brief goodbye, Neal giving her a proud smile before she hurried outside. 

“She seems very enthusiastic”, Peter said when she’d vanished behind a wall.

Neal smiled: “She used to be a bit exhausting. She’s a good kid. I’m really proud of how far she’s come.”

“This is… incredible. How long was she working this?”

“Two months, I think.”

Peter looked down at the file and back up again: “I have to ask, though: Monetti?”

Neal nodded solemnly: “Her father, yes. She helped with the arrest. I’m pretty sure it broke her heart but she did it anyway.” (AN: Toni’s dad was a mafia guy. See Titans series from 99) 

“So, why were you so worried when you got her call?”

“She just said she wanted to talk to me about a case. I thought she might be in trouble.”

Peter laughed.

“She sounded really nervous.”

“I bet. Telling someone whose approval you want about the case you’ve been working?”


End file.
